Seattle hydroplane legend Chip Hanauer launches fun Web video series

Hydroplane legend Chip Hanauer, the Seattle native who earned Hall of Fame status in his 25 years of racing, has launched an online video series about boating life in the Pacific Northwest.

Chip Hanauer sits in the cockpit of a hydroplane he piloted in test runs on Lake Washington in 2008 as part of Seafair. (Gilbert W. Arias/Seattle P-I archives)

The series, called “The Boat Guy,” follows Hanauer on numerous adventures around Seattle, including episodes on tug boats and UW rowing. The series was launched in March yet the recent videos are tied in with Seafair, for which Hanauer has been named “Captain of Summer” and will appear in Saturday’s annual Torchlight parade.

There are currently 12 “Boat Guy” episodes, with more on the way. In the videos, Hanauer plays host as he explores Seattle’s boating culture and the local personalities that go along with it. The series includes cameos by chef Tom Douglass, King County Executive Dow Constantine and the Rat City Rollergirls.

“Who’s the go-to guy when it comes to boating in the Pacific Northwest? Nobody,” Hanauer says in his introductory “Boat Guy” video (embedded below). “Well, I’d like to change that.”

“What we’ve come up with,” he added, is “an ongoing series of videos that are educational, they’re informative — but they’re fun, they’re funny, they’re just fun to watch.”

Hanauer, 59, was born in Seattle and started racing hydroplanes professionally after he graduated from WSU in 1976, first working as a teacher then racing full-time by 1978. His big break came in 1982, when he replaced the late and legendary Bill Muncey as the driver for the Atlas Van Lines team, and won five races that year.

From then through 1999, when he retired (for good), Hanauer had seven-consecutive Gold Cup victories and won a record 11 Gold Cups overall. He is a three-time national champion in hydro racing, and has been inducted into the U.S. Motorsports and International Motorsports halls of fame.

Perhaps most incredible is his recovery from a major setback in the early 1990s, when Hanauer developed a neurological disorder called spasmodic dysphonia. As noted on his “Boat Guy” bio, the malady left Hanauer unable to speak for three years, and he still undergoes a procedure every three months to maintain his voice.